As they report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, William Maddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, and Adam Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity. Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pins.) They found 60% of students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.Comment: I suppose that living abroad gives one practice in accommodating to unexpected situations and challenging assumptions to find new solutions to day to day problems. JAD
Friday, May 15, 2009
"Living abroad gives you a creative edge"
From The Economist of May 14, 2009:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I guess I am biased because I am American living abroad - but I agree. This is more evidence that supports the idea that diversity improves creativity.....On a different level, living abroad helps you learn as much about your own country as the country where you live. I appreciate even more the American ideals of rule of law and aversion to corruption. I wish other countries could see our postal service. I worry about the American family.
Post a Comment